Hello, my name is Kara, I am 14 years old, and I am from Eastern Manitoba. When my mom and I were on Facebook we found a link that led us to the Miss Teenage Canada page, we looked into it and my mom asked if I wanted to enter and I said yes. Weeks later at the end of the pageant, I got crowned Miss Teenage Eastern Manitoba. I am so happy that we found that link because I got to make new friends, learn new things, and be my own beautiful. I love to dance, act, and hangout with friends. The reason why I love to dance is because my mom put me into hip hop classes since I was five years old. Even though I was only put into hip hop classes, I try to teach myself jazz. And the reason why I love acting is because I went to a talent boot camp, at the boot camp they taught me how to act. When I came back, my new dream job is to come a actress. Because I love to be in front of a camera. I hope you like my blog! 🙂

Hello everyone, day 3 at nationals was a dream come true, plus it aloud me to take a few things off my bucket list.

It started off with my roommate and I waking up at 4 in the morning, but the best part was… drum role please! I got to be on Breakfast Television in Toronto with my fellow pageant girls!!! I can remember like it was yesterday, well actually it was pretty much yesterday, we took a ride on the bus, got to the fabulous studio and got to meet the host, take a few pictures and also got to be on live television!

Next since everyone hadn’t eaten yet that morning, we went to the best café ever and got some great breakfast. We got bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns; sad part was that I couldn’t have the toast or the hash browns because they both had gluten contained in them! That’s ok though I filled up on protein.

We then went to the amazing CN Tower in Toronto; I honestly couldn’t believe how huge it was! We went up into the elevator which is the longest elevator ride I have ever had, I thought it was really cool especially the part where I looked down and scared myself because there was a portion of the elevator that was only glass!

Once we got to the top it was extravagant and so the employees were so helpful too, I quite enjoyed the glass floor there too. One of my Manitoba pageant buddies helped me get over my fear of the glass breaking and I even sat on it, as you can see in the lovely photo below.We did a few takes of video clips and pictures and headed back to the bus. I just couldn’t wait to blog about it, so I made sure I got some good photos to share!

So one of the things I didn’t even expect to happen totally happened. A scavenger hunt! Just imagine 65 teenage girls running through The Distillery District, vying to find these little Miss Teen Canada- World tickets. Sadly all the other girls got them all but it was an amazing experience. Plus I was in love with this sculpture in the center of the district! We ate lunch, and by the way it was amazing, we ate and Café Uno and got some gluten free and vegan burgers!!!! I was so happy with that meal just to say.

I never would have thought a year ago I would be in a pageant, but here I am writing this blog!

We were given the chance to go to Costa Blanca with a $50 gift card and shop! I had the best time there, clothes were amazing, prices were amazing, especially their sale they had that day, and all us pageant girls were in retail heaven! Once I paid for the items I bought I was able to change in the bathroom for a new, edgy, outfit for Much Music! Yes I said it, Much Music the television channel…well to be honest I wrote it as you can see. Much Music was fantastic! We got to meet Lauren Toyota, which was awesome! She is so nice and an amazing host of coarse!

My day was!!! I hope you’re able to vote for me and comment as much as you can!

Oh my, what a day, what a blur. A day full of Photo Shoots, Video Shoots and Interviews with the Judges!

VOTE for Elexis Wadden Miss Teen Eastern Manitoba

Could you take a minute to VOTE for me on the Miss Teen Canada website. Join VIP for free. Once you have registered you will receive a confirmation email from MTC-W. Make sure to check your spam/junk folder if you don’t find it.

When you Click the first link in the email it will redirect you to the site. Go to the finalist page and find me! Elexis Wadden, Miss Teen Eastern Manitoba. Just Click on details at the bottom right and type in your email and Click! That’s it!

Please pass this on to everyone you know so that they can vote too. These VOTES go towards the Peoples Choice Award. Thank you. 🙂

Day 3 is going to be an even crazier ride. We are on Breakfast Television Toronto at 6:20 AM and off to the CN Tower, Much Music and more! Follow along with me on Twitter and Facebook to see where we are during the day.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn Toronto – Int’l Airport this week and I have a great room mate, it turns out her name is Lexi! She is so nice. We went to a great Welcome evening and I got to meet some of our MTCW Sponsors.

For over 35 years S-Trip! Has been a leader in student travel providing life-changing trips to over 40,000 students annually in over 40 destinations around the world. S-Trip! travelers are encouraged to become global citizens; opening their eyes to new cultures, languages, and experiences. Recently named Profit Magazine’s 25th fastest growing company in Canada, and recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies by Deloitte and CIBC, S-Trip! is a leader in student travel in North America. Find out more atwww.s-trip.com.

S-Trip! Takes student travellers on unforgettable adventures around the world. Celebrate the exciting conclusion of high school in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica or Bahamas with all your friends on Grad Trip. Spend a weekend skiing or snowboarding at one of Canada’s premier mountain resorts on Ski Trip. Experience culture, sightseeing and events in Montreal or Quebec City on Busaway. Make a difference in an underdeveloped country on an impactful studentVolunteer Trip. Explore the culture and history of Europe on Euro Adventure. For more information visit www.s-trip.com.

That is why my dreamvacation with S-Trip! would be to go on an amazing student trip to London, England! This would be a great place to travel to see many different historical sights, do lots and lots of picture taking with my high schoolfriends as a grad trip and just have the best experience of a lifetime. I would for sure take my best friends Brooke and Jade; they always know how to have a good time! We would totally enjoy the food and the shopping because lets face it, we’re girls, we love to shop!

I would want to start off with a wonderful guided sightseeing tour of London. That would include seeing the Tower of London, London Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral and of course Trafalgar Square. These would be perfect places for my friends and I to take some amazing pictures. One of the things I dream of going to is an evening theatre performance in the West End. Cool fact coming up… London has over 80 mainstream theatres – the largest number in the world!

My friends, who are my fellow Harry Potter lovers would most definitely want to go on a Warner Bros. studio tour, we would travel to Leavesden to visit the studio where the Harry Potter films were shot. We would have so much fun seeing the Great Hall where the characters ate their meals and maybe even see Diagon Alley. By that point we would all be like squealing fan girls screaming out “OMG this is where Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort”.

Having a free afternoon to stroll around in London is a must! To be able to visit the Hard Rock Café would be fabulous. Something that both my friends and I would enjoy would be to go to Madame Trussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, now that would be cool. I can imagine my friends and my phones would have over a thousand pictures by now, perfect for putting in a scrapbook!

I would like to say my closet has a never-ending array of space but unfortunately it doesn’t, but I choose to ignore it because my friends and I love to shop! In fact we are experts at it, we would take a wonderful walk along Oxford Street and visit all the lovely shops they have there. Last but not least I would want to step inside St. Paul’s Cathedral and take in some of the history and enjoy taking some really cool pictures of all the amazing architectural details. If you know what the outside architecture looks like then you can imagine the inside!

I think it would be a wonderful adventure traveling with my friends. Your whole life you basically live at home, go to school and rely on your parents to get you a new bottle of shampoo when you run out. Out in the real world when you’re on your own and not relying on your parents would be so exciting and a whole new world for you to discover. To be able to experience that with your friends would be just perfect. Besides if you get lost on a trip at least you will have your friends to get lost with!

Hello everyone! Today I will explain and write about a personalized towel commercial. Hope you enjoy!

The video will start off black and white to help differentiate how the character is feeling because in the middle of the commercial it will go to color. It starts off with phones are ringing there are people walking around with work in their hands, looking flustered, like in any work environment. Then the camera would focus on the character Will in his cubicle; he’s looking around and is trying to get this huge coffee stain off his white shirt and has a huge stack of papers on his desk he is procrastinating, because we all know if we all had that much work we would be procrastinating too. Will lies back in his office chair gets comfy and slowly but soundly falls asleep. The scene is slowly turning back to color and in his dreams he gets pulled through this vortex backwards and pops into this serene atmosphere.

Amazing soft white light glowing all around he is in a spa surrounding, he’s wondering what’s happening and where he is but calmly he feels relaxed. The camera slowly captures him from behind in just in pure amazement where he is; the camera is rotating around him about 180 degrees. As the camera follows, he walks over and smells the beautiful sweet pungent scent of the vivid azure blue hydrangeas in the spectacular towering crystal vases in the corner of the room. As he is breathing in the scents, out of the corner of his eye to the left of him he sees an eye-catching lustrous silver gift box with silk platinum ribbon cascading around it.As he slowly approaches the marble table with the gift box his senses are drawn to the open window with softly blowing white sheer curtains with the amazing scenery of a spectacular oceanfront with the salty misty breeze. He looks at the gift tag and it’s for him, and excitedly Will slowly unties the ribbon and sets it aside with the camera shooting this scene as a close up. Will takes the top of the box lid off and sees crisp ivory tissue paper, as he unwraps the gift he pulls out a stunning monogramed personalized towel with his name on it. Under the towel though shows an amazingly soft and wonderfully made personalized bathrobe. He gets so excited for his new gifts and quickly puts the robe on and folds up the towel. Remembering he has no idea where he is, Will walks out of the serene room and in a blink of an eye he is back in his office; with this time everything is in color.

With the door closed behind him he quickly opens it again and realized it’s only an office supply room now. But with his new personalized bathrobe on he is happy as ever! Even though his co-workers are all walking by and giving him weird looks to as why is he walking out of the supply closet with a bathrobe on with a personalized towel in his hand still with his work clothes on underneath? A lady walks by and stops and says “ Will, why are you wearing a bathrobe?” and Will responds back saying, “I have no idea but I love this personalized towel! I wish I had it earlier when I spilled coffee on my shirt”. The commercial ends with Will walking back to his now not so dull cubicle and is finally getting back to work and is still in his personalized bathrobe and with his personalized towel by his side.

Hello everyone! Today I am writing about green buildings, and about one building in particular, the Gaynor Family Regional Library in Selkirk, Manitoba. The Gaynor Family Regional Library is one of the many green buildings in Manitoba. It is actually still being built and due to open in December this year! When the Library Board was looking for support and funding they were very clear that this amazing venture must be as green as possible and that they would be applying for Green Globes Certification environmental design. What I found really cool is that; a green building is actually being environmentally responsible and resource responsible for the duration of a buildings entire existence. Which in other words means it is “green” from the very first bit of the design through the construction, the materials used, maintenance of it over time and to its demolition and last days on this earth, green buildings are committed to not harm earth! A good example of a building product that helps and allows a building to be green is to have a white roof; this enables the sun to be reflected off a building to make it more energy efficient.

Green Globes for new construction, like our library is actually a green building assessment and certification option that helps building owners, construction professionals, architects, engineers and facility managers in evaluating and improving the environmental of new construction projects. It is also a less expensive alternative to LEED which is the International Rating and Certification System. Apparently there is a new generation of Green Globes; ANSI/GBI 01-2010 that will be coming to Canada in the near future which is supposed to be the most scientifically advanced and holistic green building rating system available. I am just glad that my community is a part of this important system.

This new 22,000 sq. ft., $7 Million library is very exciting for our community, not only is it “green” it’s going to be so multi use and fun. From moveable, changeable furniture and computer controlled lighting. It will have an Outdoor Reading Terrace, Campfire Circle, Small Theatre, Coffee Shop, and Meeting Rooms. There will be awnings and windows to passively keep heat out in the summer and heat in during winter. There will be as many local materials used as possible like the local reclaimed wood for special features and beautiful tyndal stone from nearby Tyndal Manitoba. Rain runoff from the roof will be recycled on the property through something called ‘bio-swales’ which are very shallow ditches that carry water where you need it to go.

A very amazing system that is being used to heat and cool the library is something called ‘closed loop geothermal’ recycling. A fancy way to say that the energy works by bringing the heat created within the Earth to the surface.

Geothermal energy is considered an environment friendly alternative to fossil fuel like gas and they produce very few greenhouse gases compared to older heating and cooling systems, the EPA calls geothermal systems the most energy-efficient and environmentally safe technologies available today. Very cool! The closed loop part is interesting, there is piping that goes vertically deep into the ground and loops back in a closed system carrying fluid to and from the geothermal unit in the building. The deeper you go, is cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Fun Fact – there are 27 heat pumps that will be used! There is so much more that I want to tell you about, like Phase II, but you’re just going to have to check out another one of my blogs for that.